DFL governed clubs permitted 5-percent-quota for travelling fans as of late August
Among the other resolutions passed at the 36-member DFL meeting of clubs playing in Germany's top two footballing flights, the beginnings of a plan to allow traveling spectators back into footballing venues was approved on Wednesday.
Traveling supporters will in principle be allowed back into stadiums as early as the 2021/22 Bundesliga's 3rd matchday on weekend of August 27th-29th. The 18 clubs contesting the first and second footballing flight approved a 5-percent-quota of tickets reserved for away fans on Wednesday. As with all other corona-related measures in the Bundesrepublik, implementation of this will remain site-specific.
The clubs initially intended to approve a ten-percent-quota during Wednesday's executive meeting. The resolution ultimately passed permitted clubs to up their quota to this if local pandemic restrictions are officially loosened. Given that most German citizens do not anticipate a dramatic rollback of restrictions before the winter's cold-and-flu season passes, it can be safe to assume that the 5-percent-number will govern the first half of the campaign.
Bundesliga clubs were effectively given a bit of homework prior to the third matchday. All clubs must empirically demonstrate the necessity of allowing in away fans for their respective profit margins in addition to submitting detailed hygiene concepts to the DFL prior to the onset of the league's 3rd round.
The 36 clubs involved in the discussion did nevertheless surprise many by laying the groundwork for fan reentry policies not contingent on local incidence rates. While explicit details were not released on Wednesday, the DFL promised a new framework governing fan re-entry would be released "in the coming days".
Insofar as it is possible to read the tea leaves with respect to this statement, one can assume that the DFL is referring to full admittance of up to 25,000 spectators per venue provided that spectators can demonstrate proof of either vaccination or recovery.
It increasingly looks as if citizens of the Bundesrepublik will be carrying so-called "vaccine passports" during the next phase of the pandemic and that the announcement of a federally regulated system is near.